Occasion
25 Greek Lent and Nistisima Recipes
Nistisima are fasting dishes: no meat, no dairy, no eggs, and on stricter days no olive oil or fish. Centuries of that discipline produced Greece's best vegan cooking.
Nistisima means fasting food: no meat, no dairy, no eggs, and on the stricter days no olive oil or fish either. Centuries of cooking inside those limits produced the best vegan food Greece has. None of it was invented as a substitute for anything.
The backbone is pulses and vegetables cooked in olive oil. Fasolada, lentil soup with vinegar, baked giant beans, briam, spanakorizo, lentils and rice. Horta, the boiled greens, go with all of it.
Some dishes belong to particular days. Fried salt cod with garlic dip is for March 25th. The tahini spiral bread from Cyprus and the olive oil cookies are what gets baked when butter and eggs are off the table. Start with the giant beans: they are better the day after they are made.
Every recipe on Kalliopi's Kitchen carries the dish's Greek name and a pronunciation, its region where that is meaningful, ingredient quantities in both metric and imperial, and an honest note on what commonly goes wrong. Nutrition figures are calculated estimates and are labelled as such.
1. Baked Giant Beans in Tomato
Gigantes plaki · Γίγαντες πλακί · YEE-ghan-des plah-KEE
The beans come mainly from Kastoria and Prespes in northern Greece. They are larger and creamier than a butter bean and drink up sauce without collapsing. This is a ladera dish: the olive oil is the sauce, not a mistake in the recipe. It is vegan as it stands, and on every Greek fasting table.
Yiayia’s tip: Old beans never soften. Dried beans more than a year or so old can refuse to cook properly no matter what you do. If a batch is still hard after an hour of simmering, the beans are the problem, not your method.
Make Baked Giant Beans in Tomato2. Horta
Horta vrasta · Χόρτα βραστά · HOR-tah vrah-STAH
Nothing in Greek cooking is plainer, and it may be the most important thing in it: boiled greens with olive oil and lemon, eaten several times a week. Dandelion, chicory, amaranth and beet greens all go in the pot. They are cooked soft and drab, never bright green, because wild greens are tough and bitter.
Yiayia’s tip: Wash more than you think necessary. Grit in horta ruins it and is very hard to detect until you are eating. Lift the greens out of the water rather than tipping the whole lot into a colander.
Make Horta3. Fasolada
Φασολάδα · fah-so-LAH-thah
Routinely called the national dish, and the claim holds up: for centuries, all over the country, this was what people ate several times a week. It is filling, costs little and is allowed in every fast. No stock goes in, only water. Too little olive oil or too little time, and it stays bean water.
Yiayia’s tip: Boil hard for five minutes first. The initial hard boil and change of water removes compounds that cause digestive discomfort and gives a cleaner-tasting soup.
Make Fasolada4. Briam
Μπριάμ · bree-AHM
It looks like ratatouille and works the opposite way. Ratatouille keeps each vegetable separate. Here courgette, aubergine, pepper, potato and tomato all go in one tray and cook until they stop being separate things, their water and the olive oil turning to sauce. Forty minutes gives roasted vegetables. Ninety gives briam.
Yiayia’s tip: Use a big tray. A deep pile takes far longer and steams rather than browning. A large shallow layer is what you want, even if it means using two tins.
Make Briam5. Lentil Soup with Vinegar
Fakes · Φακές · fah-KES
Two soups fed Greece. Fasolada is one and this is the other, the quicker of them, since lentils go in unsoaked and are soft within the hour. There is little else: onion, garlic, bay, some tomato and a lot of olive oil. The vinegar goes into each bowl at the table, never the pot.
Yiayia’s tip: Salt only when tender. Salt added early toughens lentil skins and can add twenty minutes to the cooking time for no benefit.
Make Lentil Soup with Vinegar6. Cypriot Black-Eyed Bean Salad with Chard
Louvi · Λούβι · LOO-vee
Fasting-day food in Cyprus, and nobody at the table feels deprived. Black-eyed beans are simmered with chard or spinach, given olive oil and lemon while still warm, then left to cool. It is a Lenten staple, vegan as it stands. Serve it as a full plate with bread and olives, not as a side.
Yiayia’s tip: No soaking needed. Black-eyed beans are thin-skinned enough to cook from fully dry in under an hour, unlike most other dried pulses.
Make Cypriot Black-Eyed Bean Salad with Chard7. Cypriot Lenten Tahini Spiral Bread
Tahinopita · Ταχινόπιτα · tah-hee-NOH-pee-tah
Baked for Lent, when butter, milk and eggs are not allowed, and it does not taste like going without. The dough is only flour, oil, sugar and yeast. It is spread with tahini, sugar and cinnamon, rolled, then wound into a coil, much as a cinnamon roll is built. It keeps well.
Yiayia’s tip: Stir the tahini well first. It separates in the jar, with the oil rising to the top. Mix it back together before measuring, or the filling will be uneven.
Make Cypriot Lenten Tahini Spiral Bread8. Fish Roe Dip
Taramosalata · Ταραμοσαλάτα · tah-rah-moh-sah-LAH-tah
The bright pink tub from the supermarket is dyed and tastes mainly of mayonnaise. The real one is pale, from beige to the softest pink. Tarama, the cured roe of cod or carp, is fiercely salty, so it is whipped with olive oil and bread or potato. No egg comes into it.
Yiayia’s tip: Squeeze the bread bone dry. Any leftover water thins the dip and stops it whipping up fluffy. Squeeze harder than feels necessary.
Make Fish Roe Dip9. Skordalia
Σκορδαλιά · skor-dah-lee-AH
Skordo is garlic in Greek, and the dip is as loud as its name. It goes with bakaliaros, the fried salt cod eaten on March 25th. That is Greek Independence Day and it lands in Lent, so a dip without dairy suits the fast. Mash the potato by hand. A food processor makes wallpaper paste.
Yiayia’s tip: Boil the potatoes whole and unpeeled. This keeps them from absorbing extra water, which would otherwise thin the finished dip.
Make Skordalia10. Spanakorizo
Σπανακόρυζο · spah-nah-KOH-ree-zoh
Spinach and rice cooked in one pot until the rice has taken on the green. It is one of the ladera dishes, where the olive oil becomes part of the sauce, and among the quickest. Keep it wetter than a pilaf, loose enough for a spoon. Dill and lemon go in at the end.
Yiayia’s tip: Do not underestimate the spinach quantity. It reduces to roughly a quarter of its raw volume once wilted. What looks like too much going in is exactly right.
Make Spanakorizo11. Leek and Rice
Prasorizo · Πρασόρυζο · prah-SOH-ree-zoh
A winter pot, for the season when leeks are best. They soften over a low heat in a good deal of olive oil until sweet and almost jammy, then simmer with rice into something halfway between risotto and soup. Same method as spanakorizo, but paler and sweeter. Lemon goes in off the heat.
Yiayia’s tip: Wash sliced, not whole. Slicing the leeks before washing exposes the grit trapped between the layers, which a quick rinse of a whole leek can miss entirely.
Make Leek and Rice12. Fried Salt Cod with Garlic Dip
Bakaliaros skordalia · Μπακαλιάρος σκορδαλιά · bah-kah-lee-AH-ros skor-dah-lee-AH
The dish of Greek Independence Day, March 25th, a date inside Lent. Salted, dried fish is allowed under the stricter fasting rules where fresh is not, which is how salt cod became the fish of the day. The skordalia is no side dish. It is half of the plate and deserves equal care.
Yiayia’s tip: Do not rush the soak. Twenty four to forty eight hours with regular water changes is what draws out the curing salt properly. Taste a piece before frying to check.
Make Fried Salt Cod with Garlic Dip13. Epirus Cornbread with Greens
Batzina · Μπατζίνα · bah-DZEE-nah
The plain, frugal end of Epirus baking, a long way from the region's hand-rolled pies. Cornmeal, water and olive oil, no yeast, baked into a loaf that mountain villages made as everyday bread. Some fold in wild greens or spring onion. Dense is correct: it sits closer to baked polenta than to a risen loaf.
Yiayia’s tip: Oil the tin generously. Cornbread batter is prone to sticking. A thorough coating of oil helps it release cleanly once baked.
Make Epirus Cornbread with Greens14. Aubergine Baked with Onion and Tomato
Melitzanes imam · Μελιτζάνες ιμάμ · meh-leed-ZAH-nes ee-MAHM
Across the former Ottoman world there is a dish called imam bayildi, and this is the Greek one. Whole aubergines are split, filled with onion, garlic and tomato, and baked long in a great deal of olive oil. The oil ends up as the sauce, and bread is there to mop it.
Yiayia’s tip: Choose smaller aubergines if possible. They cook through more evenly than very large ones and are easier to fill neatly.
Make Aubergine Baked with Onion and Tomato15. Lentils and Rice
Fakorizo · Φακόρυζο · fah-KOH-ree-zoh
Lentil soup with rice cooked into the same pot, which makes it thick enough to eat like a pilaf. It is cheap store-cupboard food that saw Greek families through the fasts and the lean years. The step people skip is the last one: vinegar and olive oil, heated and poured over just before serving.
Yiayia’s tip: Add the lentils first, then the rice. Lentils need considerably longer to cook. Staggering the two lets them finish tender together.
Make Lentils and Rice16. White Bean Salad
Fasolia salata · Φασόλια σαλάτα · fah-SOH-lyah sah-LAH-tah
A relative of fasolada, the bean soup: white beans cooked tender, dressed warm with vinegar, olive oil, parsley and plenty of red onion, and eaten warm or at room temperature. During Lent it is a main course, not a side. It sits for hours without harm, having no dairy or mayonnaise.
Yiayia’s tip: Salt only once the beans are tender. Salting the cooking water early toughens the skins of any dried pulse.
Make White Bean Salad17. Pancakes with Honey
Tiganites me meli · Τηγανίτες με μέλι · tee-gah-NEE-tes meh meh-LEE
Thick Greek pancakes, neither a thin crepe nor a fluffy American one, eaten with honey, cinnamon and walnuts. They are an everyday breakfast. At the start of Lent, on Clean Monday, they are made with no egg: flour, water, salt and a raising agent. That version holds together well.
Yiayia’s tip: Use a shallow pool of oil, not a dry pan. This is what gives tiganites their characteristic slightly crisp edge, distinct from a Western-style dry-griddled pancake.
Make Pancakes with Honey18. Vegan Stuffed Aubergine with Rice
Melitzanes gemistes · Μελιτζάνες γεμιστές · meh-leed-ZAH-nes yeh-mee-STES
Gemista usually means tomatoes and peppers stuffed with rice. Aubergine takes the same filling, rice with tomato and herbs and no meat, which makes this Lenten cooking. It is far lighter than papoutsakia, the aubergine boat with meat sauce and bechamel. Next day, at room temperature, it is as good as warm.
Yiayia’s tip: Leave a sturdy shell. Scoop the flesh out generously but not so much that the aubergine cannot hold its shape once stuffed and baked.
Make Vegan Stuffed Aubergine with Rice19. Wild Greens Pie
Hortopita · Χορτόπιτα · hor-TOH-pee-tah
Horta are the greens a household gathers from the hillside or grows in the garden: dandelion, chicory, nettle tops, chard, spinach. Crete and Epirus, both with a strong tradition of foraging, bake them into this pie. It is more bitter and more rustic than spanakopita. Without the egg and cheese it is vegan.
Yiayia’s tip: Use a genuine mix of greens. This is what gives hortopita its varied, rustic character. A single mild green alone gives something closer to plain spanakopita.
Make Wild Greens Pie20. Chunky Aubergine and Tomato Stew
Melitzanes yahni · Μελιτζάνες γιαχνί · meh-leed-ZAH-nes yah-NEE
The word yahni names a method, not a dish: onion and garlic softened, then tomato, simmered until thick. Greek cooks put several vegetables through it. With aubergine in chunks it is the weeknight answer to melitzanes imam, with no splitting and stuffing. It keeps a couple of days and wants bread and feta.
Yiayia’s tip: Colour the aubergine before saucing. A brief fry builds real depth of flavour before the long simmer, rather than adding raw aubergine directly to the sauce.
Make Chunky Aubergine and Tomato Stew21. Vegan Olive Oil Cookies
Ladokouloura · Λαδοκούλουρα · lah-thoh-KOO-loo-rah
Cookies made for Lent, when butter and eggs are both off the table. Olive oil does all the work of the fat and gives a crumbly, slightly dense cookie with a faint fruitiness that butter does not have. They were vegan long before anybody called it that.
Yiayia’s tip: Use a mild olive oil. A strong, peppery extra virgin can fight with the orange rather than sitting in the background as intended.
Make Vegan Olive Oil Cookies22. Fried Dogfish with Garlic Potato Dip
Galeos skordalia · Γαλέος σκορδαλιά · gah-LEH-os skor-dah-lee-AH
Fried shark, in plain terms. Dogfish is a small one, with firm, meaty flesh and no small bones, which makes it forgiving. It is fried and served with skordalia exactly as salt cod is, without the long desalting, because it is used fresh. This is Lenten food across Greece, and a full meal.
Yiayia’s tip: Dry the fish before battering. Any surface moisture stops the batter adhering properly and can cause spitting in the hot oil.
Make Fried Dogfish with Garlic Potato Dip23. Lagana
Λαγάνα · lah-GHAH-nah
Baked once a year, for Clean Monday, when the seven weeks of Lent begin, and hardly seen otherwise. It is an oval sesame bread with a dimpled top, always eggless, traditionally with little or no yeast. It sits on the table with taramosalata, olives and dolmades. Eat it the day it is baked.
Yiayia’s tip: Do not expect a fully risen loaf. Traditional lagana is flatter and denser than a standard bread, reflecting Clean Monday's simple, fasting character.
Make Lagana24. Artichokes with Peas
Anginares me araka · Αγκινάρες με αρακά · an-gee-NAH-res meh ah-rah-KAH
Artichokes and peas peak at the same point in spring, and cook together in olive oil with dill, spring onion and lemon. It has the flavours of lamb and artichoke fricassee with the meat left out, and stands as a vegan main course. The oil becomes the sauce, so use a good one.
Yiayia’s tip: Give the artichokes a head start. They need considerably longer than fresh peas to cook through. Add the peas only once the artichokes are nearly tender.
Make Artichokes with Peas25. Lentil Salad
Fakes salata · Φακές σαλάτα · fah-KES sah-LAH-tah
The lentils of fakes soup, taken the other way: served cold with olive oil, red wine vinegar, parsley and plenty of red onion. Dress them while still warm, because warm lentils take the dressing in and cold ones leave it on top. It lasts for hours at room temperature, which makes it picnic food.
Yiayia’s tip: Do not overcook the lentils. A salad wants distinct lentils that hold their shape, not a mushy puree. Check from 25 minutes onwards.
Make Lentil Salad
More Greek Lent and Nistisima Recipes
44 more, 69 in all.
Chickpea SaladRevithosalata ΡεβιθοσαλάταSalads · 1h · serves 6
Red Lentil SoupSoupa fakes kokkines Σούπα φακές κόκκινεςSoups · 40m · serves 4
Aubergine-Wrapped Rice RollsDolmades me melitzana Ντολμάδες με μελιτζάναMain Courses · 1h 30m · serves 6
Grape Must CookiesMoustokouloura ΜουστοκούλουραDesserts · 50m · serves 16
Bread-Based Garlic DipSkordalia me psomi Σκορδαλιά με ψωμίDips and Sauces · 20m · serves 6
Corfu Vegetable and Pasta SoupBourou bourou Μπουρού μπουρούSoups · 55m · serves 5
Cypriot Lentils and Rice with OnionsMoutzentra ΜουτζέντραMain Courses · 1h 5m · serves 5
Smoky Aubergine DipMelitzanosalata ΜελιτζανοσαλάταDips and Sauces · 45m · serves 6
GemistaGemista ΓεμιστάMain Courses · 2h 10m · serves 6
MelomakaronaMelomakarona ΜελομακάροναDesserts · 1h 5m · serves 30
Yellow Split Pea PureeFava Santorinis Φάβα ΣαντορίνηςDips and Sauces · 1h · serves 6
Grilled OctopusHtapodi sta karvouna Χταπόδι στα κάρβουναMeze and Appetisers · 1h 30m · serves 4
DolmadesDolmades ΝτολμάδεςMeze and Appetisers · 1h 50m · serves 8
Rhodes Chickpea and Tomato FrittersPitaroudia ΠιταρούδιαMeze and Appetisers · 45m · serves 6
Chickpea FrittersRevithokeftedes ΡεβιθοκεφτέδεςMeze and Appetisers · 45m · serves 6
Eggless Spice Cake for Saint FanouriosFanouropita ΦανουρόπιταDesserts · 1h 5m · serves 12
Dodecanese Orzo-Style Pasta with TomatoSitaraki ΣιταράκιMain Courses · 35m · serves 4
Green Beans in Tomato and Olive OilFasolakia lathera Φασολάκια λαδεράSide Dishes · 1h · serves 4
Okra in Tomato and Olive OilBamies latheres Μπάμιες λαδερέςSide Dishes · 1h · serves 4
Corfu White Fish StewBianco ΜπιάνκοMain Courses · 55m · serves 4
Courgette in Tomato SauceKolokithakia yiahni Κολοκυθάκια γιαχνίSide Dishes · 45m · serves 4
Orzo SoupSoupa kritharaki Σούπα κριθαράκιSoups · 40m · serves 4Get one proper Greek recipe a week
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